War of Affections
by Bizzle
Summary: A slight touch of friendly malice and amusement towards those we love keeps our affections for them from turning flat." You can fight each other, tooth and nail, but one should at least always have the curtousy to snuggle. (NaruSasu)


My computer started to decay after having something so sugary sitting on it for a month or so, hence the post.  
  
It's mindless, I tell you. Utterly, utterly mindless.

* * *

Love is just another battlefield for those who don't know when to put their weapons down. Domestically speaking, war had never started so easily.  
  
On the first night, Naruto had the audacity to want to cuddle afterward. What he got was a fist in the eye for his trouble and the quick, angry departure of his bedmate. Sasuke had seemed to have taken great personal offense at Naruto's sickening affection and opted to stalk off to the stiff couch just down the hall, lest his dignity be again assaulted by something so _obviously_ beneath him.  
  
Naruto wiggled under the covers, slightly distressed - but mostly annoyed and indignant - and strained his mind to come up with a solution for Sasuke's snuggling phobia. Around midnight he had it, so he grinned like a fox - quite as mad as one, too, Sasuke says in a bitterly affectionate tone sometimes - and rolled over to go to sleep, content in his brilliance.  
  
On the second night, Sasuke was tackled before he'd even gotten his breathe back from the sex. He was then "sentenced to the cuddling of a lifetime," courtesy of Naruto, "because that's what we're supposed to do, bastard." Ignoring his words, Sasuke expertly rolled Naruto over so fast that, before he even knew it, Sasuke was on top and pinning him; while nice, it was _not_ according to plan. Sasuke smirked down at him, fingers tapping Naruto's trapped wrists mockingly. Naruto tried to seethe, but could only manage a disappointed pout. Before rolling off, Sasuke gently nipped Naruto's nose just to get him pissed (it worked magnificently), and proceeded to sashay stark naked into the living room, victorious yet again.  
  
Naruto howled like a monkey and leapt up to bash that stupid fucking assface's head in with a pillow, the fucking insensitive jerk.  
  
On the third night, after a brief conference with Shikamaru that ended with a forced agreement to never speak of sex with Sasuke ever, ever again, Naruto switched to a different tactic. He waited until their hips had stilled - and Sasuke had stopped arching his back while clawing mindlessly away at Naruto's own, which hurt a fucking _lot_ - before launching his assault. Naruto attacked Sasuke's lips, mouth open, tongue rough and pawing like a cat. Sasuke weakly protested and batted away the hands petting his chest, but Naruto would not be beaten. He nuzzled Sasuke's sweat-glazed throat and parted the other's still trembling thighs with his own, piteously whining.  
  
"Freak," Sasuke breathed, but was content to be ravished.  
  
After he collapsed a second, and then a_ third_ time - Naruto had the stamina of ten men, which was Sasuke would never, ever admit to being turned on by - Sasuke wasn't even able to summon the energy to narrow his eyes when Naruto put an arm around his heaving chest and gave a victorious grunt. Too tired to move or to even blink, Sasuke realized what Naruto's plan had been all along.  
  
"Bastard," Sasuke's throat rasped, and in Naruto's arms he swore his revenge.  
  
On the fourth night, there was no sex. They just gravitated slowly into bed and the ended up meeting somewhere in the middle. Both waited for the other to make a move first, and of course Naruto did, so Sasuke thoroughly beat him with a pillow when he saw that single audacious arm daring to creep forward and around him.  
  
And that, _that_ was the last fucking straw for Naruto, who was only trying to show that he cared for the "fucking ice prick." Without so much as a warning growl, Naruto tackled his lover and bit him square on the nose in a fit of passionate rage. Furious, and rightly so, Sasuke did not take this sitting down. He shoved Naruto off of him and began to scratch the hell out of everything he could get his fingernails into, mentally registering Naruto's shrieks of "icicle up your fucking ASS" and adding his own of "brain the size of a fucking **pea**!"  
  
When all was lovingly said and done - and a lot more ass kicking was done than affections said, boys being boys - both sat as far apart as two people could on a worn-out queen sized bed with the middle sagging to the floor, pointedly not looking at each other. The silence stretched on for minutes, and while they usually would have let it hang into the dawn and flavor the morning coffee, Naruto decided to be the bigger man this time around.  
  
"You're such a frigid bastard," he whined, and kicked at Sasuke under the blankets. Right, not exactly an apology, but it was the thought that counted.  
  
Sasuke seemed unimpressed. "Deal with it. I don't like when you attempt to smother me."  
  
"With _affection_, dammit!" Naruto screamed, though he knew it was useless. Sasuke would never listen to him. Sasuke would never understand. Naruto liked showing love, Sasuke... preferred to be an ass, obviously. He didn't give good morning kisses, he didn't give farewell hugs, he didn't say "I love you" out of the blue. That was just the way Sasuke was.  
  
And sometimes Naruto hated him for it, but also found it endearing. The complexity of their weird little coupling made his head hurt and his heart sigh and damn it, he hated acting like some whiny little girl. It reminded him too much of Sasuke.  
  
"Whatever," said whiny little girl muttered, then looked over at the alarm clock on the bedside table with a slight frown. "It's getting late and I have a mission tomorrow. I'm going to sleep, if you've got nothing else to start a fist fight over."  
  
Naruto moodily swung his ankle over Sasuke's and stabbed at the bastard's pale, bare feet with his toenails in annoyance. "Whatever, dickhead." Typical of the asshole to avoid their issues.  
  
Sasuke pulled his feet away and sunk into the hideous orange down comforter Naruto'd bought them nearly a month ago, ignoring the insult. "G'night, Naruto."  
  
"Yeah. Right. Night." This sucked.

* * *

He'd counted sheep, cracks in the ceiling, and the dogs and cats he could sense roaming around the neighborhood outside, but Sasuke still couldn't fall asleep. Something kept nagging him at the back of this mind, and despite his attempts at ignoring it, it was forcing him to make a few choices. Faced with no sleep, Sasuke had no choice but to make them.  
  
He cared for Naruto, no matter how much he wished that wasn't true or denied it. Naruto awoke something within him long since blackened and shriveled, and Sasuke... he found himself taken with it, he could grudgingly admit. The man could make anything in life look good and welcoming again, even a life without revenge or ultimate power. Naruto could make anything right again, and didn't Sasuke owe him for that? His life had been saved by that conviction of Naruto's, in more ways than one.  
  
Someone who cared enough about him like that did, admittedly, deserve more. Shit. He was going to have to do it, and he'd like doing to, if he was completely honest with himself.  
  
Which he wasn't, yet. Step by tiny step, first.  
  
Gathering up a bit of resolution, Sasuke leaned over to poke Naruto in the shoulder. "Hey, dumbass," he whispered.  
  
Naruto rolled over to face him, irritated. "What? I'm trying to sleep here, bastard."  
  
Sasuke said nothing and just flopped his arm around Naruto's back to better snuggle in. "You're a fucking idiot, so be glad that I like you," drifted between them, unsaid.  
  
"Er," Naruto said, articulate as always, and stared.  
  
Sasuke just pressed his face into Naruto's warm neck and sighed. Twit.  
  
Game, set, _battle won_. When he finally realized this, Naruto's heart simultaneously stopped and soared. His bastard did care, he thought affectionately, after all.  
  
Turning on to his other side, Naruto curved his hand around the small of Sasuke's back like a true victor. Ha, he'd known it all along.  
  
Really.

* * *

On the new first day, the morning after, Naruto attempted to hold hands in public. Appropriately prompted, Sasuke furiously tore three of his fingernails off for it.  
  
One battle may have been won, but certainly not the war. 


End file.
